Massachusetts Genealogy, With a Focus on Mayflower Families & Other Early Settlers of Plymouth & Barnstable Counties

Welcome! I really enjoy exchanging information with people and hope this blog will help with that. I am not an expert and I consider most of my research as a work in progress. Some of the surnames I'm researching:

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Jonathan Bumpus was born about
1769, likely in Wareham, Mass. He is my 5th great-grandfather on my
grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis’ side of the family. Bumpus is also seen
spelled as Bumpas, Bump and Bompasse. For years I believed Jonathan was the son
of Thomas Bumpus and Mercy Stewart, but that now appears incorrect. Paul Bumpus,
Historian General of the Mayflower Society, is working on updating the Bumpus
Genealogy and believes Jonathan's parents were incorrectly transcribed on his death
record and were Jos & Mercy, not Thos & Mercy. This means
that Joseph and Mercy (Haskins) Bumpus are the more likely parents. Exactly how
Joseph descends from Edward 1 Bumpus/Bompasse isn’t known with certainty. Don’t you just
hate when there is one iffy generation in an ancestral line?

What I do know is Jonathan was born about 1769 and married Martha Chubbuck on 7
January 1790 in Wareham. I haven’t been able to find Martha’s parentage. There
were early Chubbucks in Hingham, some later in Wareham and also a slight
variation on the name, Churbucks, in Wareham.

Wareham Congregational Church, Images of America

I have seen information online
that has Martha, daughter of Benjamin Chubbuck and Ruth Besse, born Wareham
1741, married Nathan Muxhom and Jonathan Bumpus. This is impossible as the dates
are way off for a woman born 1741 to marry Jonathan as her second husband. She
is also called Martha Chubbuck, not Martha Muxhom, at her marriage to Jonathan.If anyone has information on
Martha’s parents, I would love to hear from you!

Based on her age at death,
Martha was born 29 February 1764.

Jonathan and Martha had eight
known children, likely all born Wareham:

Olive P. born 16 July 1790,
married Shem Bumpus, died Wareham 28 September 1864

Etsil born 12 April 1794, married
Lucy Smith, served War of 1812, died Wareham 1 December 1851

Jonathan born 2 March 1795,
married Ruth Pierce, died Wareham 19 September 1874

Hosea born 20 May 1797, married
Delia Bennett, died Wareham 20 January 1863

Ruth born 2 February 1802, married
Jonathan Bumpus, died Wareham 10 May 1866

James born 11 March 1810,
married Ruth Bumpus, died Wareham 27 July 1866

Martha born 3 June 1811, married
Charles Bumpus, died Wareham 6 March 1865

I descend from Rowland
Sturtevant Bumpus, whom I wrote about here.It’s certainly a confusing
family to research with all the Bumpuses (Bumpi?) married Bumpuses and multiple women named Ruth Bumpus!

Lucy and Rowland (thanks to Laurie Howland)

Lynne Albert Bumpus wrote that
Jonathan was a miller.

Martha died 5 April 1845 in
Wareham. According to her death certificate (which does not list parents)she was age 52 years, 2 months, 25 days, died of Influenza,
was born and died Wareham, wife of Jonathan Bumpus. Her age at death didn’t make
sense, but it appears the clerk made an error and that she was age 81y 1m 6d. The
52 years of age comes from the next entry in the vital records.

Jonathan died in
Wareham on 5 February 1847.

Gravestones for Martha and
Jonathan do not survive.I would guess they are buried at Agawam Cemetery in Wareham, which is the final resting spot of many of their family.

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About Me

I'm a Massachusetts native, a wife, mother of three and a genealogy nut. I work at a Senior Center planning activities and trips. My other loves include crafting, home decorating, reading, my three rescue dogs, and the Red Sox and the Boston Bruins. Email: Please contact me at: tessiecami(at)gmail(dot)com. If you're not a computerized robot, you'll know where to put the "at" sign and "dot." Thank you!